1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for arranging a plurality of capacitors (e.g., electrolytic capacitors) (hereinafter also referred to as a “capacitor assembly”) having lead terminals on a board in such a way as to be able to be replaced at one time.
2. Description of the Background Art
The following have been proposed as well-known conventional techniques for arranging a capacitor assembly on a board.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-286150 has, for example, described a capacitor assembly consisting of a plurality of capacitors which are united by being connected to each other at their respective terminals of the same polarity by a metal conductor.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-288855 has described a capacitor bank consisting of (six) electrolytic capacitors secured by a fixing band, the electrolytic capacitors each being configured by filling a space between a capacitor element and an outer case with a fixative for fixing the capacitor element.
Further, a conventional technique for replacing only short-lived electrolytic capacitors out of electronic components mounted on a printed circuit board has been proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-151062. More specifically, according to this publication, spare through holes for connection to replacement electrolytic capacitors are formed in the printed circuit board, concentrically with through holes for connection to mounting electrolytic capacitors.
For shortest-lived electrolytic capacitors out of various electronic components constituting a semiconductor device, maintenance work or replacement of all electrolytic capacitors mounted on a single control board is essential. However, the maintenance work requires first the process of demounting all electrolytic capacitors from the board by melting, one by one for each electrolytic capacitor, a solder joint that electrically connects each lead terminal and an electrode pattern on the board, and then requires the process of soldering all replacement electrolytic capacitors one by one onto the board. In this way, the conventional maintenance work on electrolytic capacitors is complicated and a multistep process, thus having a problem of requiring a relatively long time until completion of the work.
Such a problem is associated not only with the electrolytic capacitors, but in general, can turn up in common in any device having a board on which two or more capacitors having bipolar lead terminals or electrode lead wires are mounted.